SEX EDUCATION: Islamic schools reject "safe sex" message

News Weekly, June 10, 2006

A principal of a Melbourne Islamic school said his sex education classes will not include discussion about "safe sex" because it encourages promiscuity.

Islamic schools in Australia have united to ensure that Muslim children reject the "safe sex" message purveyed through most Australian schools, and to ensure that children are taught that sexual activity should only be conducted within marriage.

Schools which are part of the Australian Council for Islamic Education in Schools have adopted a policy document, Sex Education Policy: an Islamic Perspective.

It says that non-Muslim teachers will not conduct sexual health classes in Islamic schools. Students will be taught that pre-marital sex and homosexuality are anti-Islamic and therefore prohibited.

Warning of the danger of children forming their attitudes to sex from un-Islamic sources such as newspapers, magazines, television and the internet, the policy document says that "Muslim youth may end up getting the wrong notion of sex, as for example, safe sex is OK".

It adds, "It is imperative that the Islamic attitude to sex should win the race over the Western attitude to sex in reaching the minds of Muslim youth."

Mohamed Hassan, the principal of Minaret College in Melbourne, said Islamic sex education classes would not include discussion about "safe sex" - the use of condoms to prevent sexually-transmitted diseases - because it encouraged promiscuity.

"If you are going to tell kids that safe sex is OK, you are more or less encouraging them in this behaviour. But it is not acceptable outside marriage," he told one journalist.